Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Mittani Conflict

By now pretty much everyone in Eve has heard about the Mittani's off-color remarks at the Alliance Panel at Fanfest. As I said previously, I didn't catch much of Fanfest live since I was so busy last week, but Marc Scaurus (or Marcasaurus, which I love), posted a link to the video of the offense. To be honest, I watched the clip, waited a little while longer, and then replayed it back before I realized what all of the commotion was about. You can call me slow or desensitized, but I couldn't believe that all of the threadnaughts were about that one (albeit very poorly chosen) sentence.

Before everyone loses it, I'm no supporter of encouraging suicide or internet bullying. But let's be real. Mittani's comments were really in bad taste and he was way out of line, but there's no need to overreact to the situation. The Mittani apologized publicly, and the opinion shared by myself and many others is that that apology was sincere. I am perfectly willing to forgive and forget. I know I've said a few inappropriate things before, both under the influence of alcohol and sober. I would want those I have offended to forgive me, so I give the same opportunity to the Mittani. Please, let any saints post here in comments and I will give you full validation for continued hating on the Mittani.

In my opinion, the most indicative thing in this situation is the reaction of the pilot who has been "bullied." In Liang Nuren's post, the chat logs show that The Wis didn't even know that the Mittani spoke the way he did. He hardly seemed offended when Xeross155 informed him of the situation. Now, in a link posted on Jester's Trek, The Wis seemed a bit hurt by the situation, but was still taking on a respectable "I'm trying to ignore it" attitude. He also did accept almost 11 billion in isk from the Mittani as an apology. If the "victim" is handling the situation in this manner, who are we as the community to turn this into such a big deal?

To close, the Mittani was wrong. No question about it. There's no need to talk like that drunk or sober, but he did. But at this point, he's apologized, and besides perhaps reaching out more directly to The Wis (in addition to the isk he sent), I see nothing more he could or should do. Stepping down from the CSM is hardly necessary. Whether you like the Mittani or not, he is good for New Eden. If he really wants to step down from the chairman position, that is fine. This is especially fine given that the Chair is really only special in terms of perceived status; it has no extra weight in decision making. At the end of the day though, its time to move on. Let's get back to what makes this game great and talk about Fanfest, Inferno predictions/commentary, and stories about internet spaceships. Let's give Mittens his one bad screw-up and hope (for his sake) that nothing like this happens again.